Lunch in Malko Tarnovo, Bulgaria
By the time I reached Bulgaria I was absolutely starving. The only problem was… I had no Bulgarian money! So my first stop in the tiny town of Malko Tarnovo was at the corner ATM. I withdrew 200 Bulgarian Lev and then parked my bicycle outside a busy cafe where I ordered a Coca Cola, a cucumber salad and two grilled cheese sandwiches (which were delivered to me as six pieces of bread covered with cheese and topped with a slice of cucumber and tomato. Really, really good!).
After lunch I crossed the city’s main courtyard and picked up some food and toilet paper for the road at the market you see in the photo above. Inside this small corner market was a tiny offering of goods that had been carefully positioned behind a long curved counter maned by a single old woman. To buy my food I had to point at the items I wanted behind the counter and then the woman would pull the items down for me. After I had picked out everything I wanted, the old woman totaled up my order on a dirty plastic calculator and turned the device around to show me that my total was only 5.50 Lev for a small mountain of merchandise.
